


One Hell or Another

by TelepathJeneral



Category: Outlast (Video Games)
Genre: Disassociation, Hallucinations, Other, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 04:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2837915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TelepathJeneral/pseuds/TelepathJeneral
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some inmates are more alike than you'd think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Hell or Another

Footsteps thud against wood as he walks, his steps huge and measured and even, and his presence takes up an entire floor of the building as his prey skitters to try and hide in the darkness. Darkness is everywhere, here, wrapping around the patients like a blanket, like the caul in the womb. Dennis is scared.

Water rushes in around him, the darkness the depths of the ocean as the water rises higher and higher, and he tries to stop himself from breathing as that _thing_ comes up the stairs. Footsteps thud. Huge jackbooted feet, a body twisted by the-

_Y’ ain’t gonna let the Groom get to us, now._

_Be smart, boy. Don’t get cocky._

Dennis shivers, whispering to himself under the cover of darkness, and he refuses to think about the Man Downstairs. The men. The men, all of them, the doctor with the hard voice and the questions and the man that had frowned at him and called him a psycho bastard. He hadn’t been good enough. The Groom was good enough, the Groom was special, but Dennis had to hide. They’d let him drown, again and again and again and again and again until he ended up here. Here, now, alone with the Groom.

_He ain’t supposed t’ come up those stairs._

_Fucker don’t know his place_.

Dennis quiets Them, shushes Them in his head, but he can still hear the footsteps getting closer. The Groom can hear Them.

_Run, boy._

He can’t, his body wracked with terror, the water rushing in from above and below, those footsteps measuring out space like a measuring tape. Dennis remembers the hum of a sewing machine. The hum of a tailor at work.

…. _get married, son, and see….how happy you will be…._

“Don’t go downstairs.” He forces out between clenched teeth, his body betraying him as the pressure grows. Footsteps turn, adjust. Dennis can only hold his breath as the entire bedframe above him is lifted up.

“Darling.”

“You _fool_ , you fuckin’ idiot, you _son of a whore-_ “ They shout at him now, loud and clear, and Dennis is scrambling to his feet as best he can, wading through water. His lips are not his own, the voices echoing around him and the body behind him, and Dennis tries to scream.

“That attitude, now. It is regrettable. But I’m sure, with time, we can come to fix that.” The Groom is so much faster, so much larger and so much taller and Dennis is terrified. The Father is speaking, spitting insults so fast that Dennis can’t keep up, and the men are laughing at him again, and he trips and falls with a splash. He begins to drown in a foot of water, his body convulsing, and he can feel the Groom lift him up and turn him around.

“N-N-No, Father-“ Dennis pleads, unable to even see the Groom as a threat anymore with the Father still trying to steal Dennis’s lips. “S-Stop, please, I want to be good-“

“Not worth the seed of my loins.” The Father spits with Dennis’s lips, blinding him to both the water and the Groom. “Barely got any hair on you, barely even worth callin’ a _son._ ”

“I-I am your son!”

“Let him cut your prick off. It’ll be more use to him anyway.” The Father rears his ugly head, shaking Dennis to his fragile and uncertain core, and Dennis sinks into the river as the Groom stops moving.

“I want to be good. I want to be good. I want to be good.” Dennis’s voice is not his own, taken and stolen from him by the Others, and he shakes with the effort of it all as strong arms set him back onto a faded mattress. “I want to be good. I promise, I’ll be good-“

“Don’t let the father force his sins upon the son.” The Groom pauses, releasing the smaller man. Dennis cannot hear him, lost to the waves rushing over his body, but the decreasing threat of castration and neutering encourages the Brother to chime in. Footsteps retreat, leaving Dennis in the darkness, and he opens his mouth to let the Others have free reign as he claims his life, his freedom guaranteed only by the Groom’s smallest sliver of mutual understanding.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I realize this is not entirely canonical, mainly since Dennis's 'alter-egos' are not true personalities, and thus lack some of the power that such identities would have. In addition, the water may not be as "present" for Dennis as is represented here. However, the character of a father rebuking his son would be all too familiar to Eddie Gluskin, and I saw potential in that. Thank you for reading.


End file.
